Sustainability performance assessment of Tunisian public transport companies: AHP and ANP approaches

Abstract

This paper suggests a 29-indicator based transport sustainability governance index to shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of eight regional transit operators in Tunisia using the absolute measurement approaches of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and analytical network process (ANP). Despite the difference in the overall sustainability scores, four companies have obtained the same ranking orders under both methods. The rest of the firms were ranked differently. Although both models generated interesting insights, ANP outperformed AHP in terms of priority distribution and significance of findings due to its capability of incorporating and quantifying criteria interdependencies. This research is the first in the literature that combines the three sustainability pillars with the governance principles using the direct rating approach of AHP and ANP to evaluate public transport firms.